ASMR Research & Support launched two new competitions. One is a logo competition and the other a research competition that will both help aid the research effort. They will run until the end of the year, so you’ve still got a whole month to enter if you haven’t yet!

A new article on ASMR was published by Devon King over at Charged Magazine. Devon went a step further and took it upon himself to bring back the Wikipedia page on ASMR! It’s up for the time being, and it is open to everyone to edit, but there are some things to consider if you do add anything to it. You have to have reliable, reputable sources, such as published news articles. Blogs, forums and so on won’t be accepted. Now that we have several articles on ASMR on the internet though, this means that the page has a better chance of staying up.

Another article popped up over on The Examiner, where the writer chatted to Haiying Yang, whose videos on YouTube are a favourite among many experiencers of ASMR. An interesting article appeared on the gaming and lifestyle blog Kotaku.com near the end of the month, with the writer exploring ASMR’s potential to enhance one’s gaming abilities.

I put up a new poll on the blog. This one is about which sense you use most when trying to trigger ASMR. So far the results seem to indicate that hearing is the most dominant sense used.

On November 25th, the Boring Conference took place in the UK. Tickets went on sale in October, and eventually sold out. What was so special about this conference, is that there was a lecture on ASMR that took place. There’s been a resurgence in interest for an ASMR conference to take place, actually. Discussions have taken place on Facebook, where people are suggesting a venue in St. Louis, Missouri, USA for an ASMR conference to take place. Initial plans – and I’m talking way back – were to have such a conference on the 9th of April, 2013 to mark the 2nd ever International ASMR Day.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

This might peeve a few Type A experiences out there seeing as this poll is mainly geared towards Type B experiencers, but that’s not to say that it might not have any relevance to Type As at all. In fact this poll has the most options to vote for. Usually I have three or four – maybe five – but this time it’s seven!

Which sense do you rely on most to trigger ASMR events? Do you rely on sight mostly – watching someone do something? Or is it sound – listening to something, or someone talking, whispering, etc.? Maybe it’s touch, when someone gives you a massage or plays with your hair. It could be smell, or it could be taste. Maybe you don’t rely on any senses at all if you are a Type A experiencer. I was in two minds about putting down “sixth sense” as a choice, but then someone may indeed think it is linked to a sixth sense. So I’ve included it in the interests of getting as wide a spectrum of votes as I can possibly get, and being fair and unbiased as far as the theories people subscribe to goes.

Now while we may rely on more than one sense, or using more than one sense may indeed enhance (or even detract) from the entire experience, I want you try and single out the sense that does it for you the most.

So the options are:

a) Sight (visual) – you rely on sight most, and watch people performing tasks, whether in real life or via digital media (YouTube or the TV for example), and find this is your most reliable sense. Possibly even reading books or brochures may work for you.

b) Hearing/Sound (auditory) – You prefer to rely on sound to trigger ASMR events. You’ll most likely opt for the radio, podcasts, music and perhaps even listening to telemarketers on the phone (talking to them is not required) to get your hourly/daily/weekly ASMR flowing!

c) Touch (somatosensory) – You just love it when someone massages you, strokes your back, plays with your hair, or gives you a haircut. You may be more likely for this reason to hold the belief that ASMR is linked to some sort of evolutionary grooming response.

d) Smell (olfactory) – There are certain odours or aromas that consistently trigger ASMR events for you, whether it be natural or synthetic. It could be the scent of a flower, freshly cut grass, or a fragrance you take a whiff of when somebody passes you by.

e) Taste (gustatory) – There are foodstuffs or objects that actually produce these sensations and psychological effects for you. Maybe it’s an ice cube. Could be that it’s nibbling on a wooden bead. Or perhaps it’s that most reliable foodstuff: chocolate. I don’t know. You tell me!

f) Sixth sense – You believe that ASMR is linked to some sort of a sixth sense, whether that’s the supposed “spidey” sense or intuition that people talk about or something else. Some even rely on tingling sensations produced by ASMR to help tell good people or situations from bad.

g) I don’t rely on any senses – This option is for Type A experiencers just because I didn’t want them feeling too left out. You don’t rely on any senses because you don’t need external stimuli to trigger ASMR events. You might trigger ASMR events from deep thought, or meditation.

As per usual, there are 3 months or 90 days left to vote in this poll, which is on the sidebar to the right, before it closes and the results displayed here on the blog. Please feel free to add comments to this post to help explain your choice and express your opinions.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Okay, here’s the deal. I’ve been given some free promotional codes by the developer of this app – the one for Apple iOS, called ASMR Mobile. The developer suggested I could hold a competition of sorts and that the winners would get a code to be able to download the app for free with.

I decided to host a logo/art contest. This ties in with ASMR Research & Support’s newly announced Kickstarter project. We need some material for future that we can use with our media packages, which we will send to donators as part of a gift tier to show our gratitude. And we want to give the budding artists out there a chance to contribute. So we’re looking for logos and art that we might possibly use to put on stickers and other items. Slogans are welcome too, but must be presented in the form of a nicely designed graphic.

This contest will be open for entries until the end of December. When it closes, the judges will choose the winners. There’s a limit of two images that one may submit. The winners will each receive a free promo code to download the ASMR Mobile app for Apple iOS for use with an iPhone, iPod, and iPad.

Then there’s also the essay competition, which was thought up by Envelope. What this calls for is ideas to best research ASMR. So if you’re not much for designing logos, then never fear because your talents are needed here (you may enter both competitions if you like, though). You may only submit one essay, and the winners will also get a free code for the app and perhaps more.

Both competitions are now on, until the end of the year. For the rules of both competitions, make sure to head on over to ASMR Research & Support’s contest page for more details.

If you can’t access the contest page, then head over to our Facebook group (it’s closed so you have to join to enter). We’ll have all the details there at some point too. There’s also our Facebook page, where we have the competition details and rules under the post for November 8, 2012.

Monday, November 5, 2012

This has arguably been the most interesting and definitely the most popular poll I’ve run on this blog so far. 108 people voted, which is the most votes on any poll conducted here on this blog, for sure.

So let’s go through the results:

63 people (58%) – over half of all voters – voted for A, saying that they experience a tingling sensation in or on the head/scalp region.

The second greatest number of votes was for option C, which had 26 people (24%) – just about a quarter of all voters – claiming that they consistently experience a tingling sensation all over their bodies, from head to toe.

12 people (11%) said that they experience a tingling sensation in parts of the body other than the head/scalp region, meaning they voted for option B.

And lastly with the least amount of votes, option D, where 7 people (6%) claimed that even though they may experience a reaction of sorts when exposed to triggers, they don’t experience any tingling sensations whatsoever.

Site Updates

These are just mini-updates that I was too lazy or busy to make a post for. They also list changes or additions that have been made to the blog, for interest's sake and to follow how the blog is developing.